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“We should’ve left you in that basement.” Allison’s words are laced with resentment, causing even Diego to snap at her.
Five saw red.
How dare she?
How fucking dare she?
He wasn’t present when Viktor was thrown into the basement. As far as he knows, Luther was the main man to do so. Everyone else had been against leaving him there, including Allison, who was actually the most sympathetic towards Viktor among them all.
And if he’s correct, according to what they’ve told him, they did. They did leave him in that basement. Viktor broke out on his own, which was why the academy was left in shambles.
A smack. Viktor punched Allison in the face and Five didn't even try to push down the deep satisfaction that rose inside him, but fury was greater. If Viktor hadn’t swang at Allison like that, Five would’ve.
“Enough!” Five stands up abruptly, startling everyone. Viktor’s eyes flash with betrayal, no doubt assuming Five was taking Allison’s side. Softening his gaze, he looks at Viktor to signal him to stay. Viktor’s expression softens ever so slightly and he pauses, still coughing, holding his throat. He simply gives a small jerky nod before looking away, eyes glinting with tears. Five directs his gaze back to Allison and settles with a glare, sneering. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“Excuse me?” She asks, a small trail of blood dripping from her nose.
“I said, what in the actual fuck is wrong with you?”
“What’s wrong with me?” Allison laughs coldly, “Me?”
“Did Viktor punch you so hard that you got hearing impairment now? Want me to repeat my question again?” Five scowls.
“Did you hear what I said? Harlan killed-”
“Oh, I’m not the one who’s deaf, Allison, I heard.” Five grins icily, “And I am upset Viktor didn’t tell us. But there’s a line you crossed-”
“Which is?” She challenged, tone hard and possibly ready to rumor him into also shutting up. He’ll take that challenge.
“Let’s see… Oh right, that comment you just said about the fucking basement.” Five says quietly, seething with rage. Allison snorts, appearing baffled,
“Are you serious right now?”
Five decides to ignore that and continues, “Oh and by the way, a bit of fact in case you forgot- you did leave him in the basement. Doesn’t matter if you wanted to or not… You did. He broke out. But feel free to correct me if I’m wrong. I wasn’t there, remember?”
Five looks around the room and finds Luther and Diego’s eyes, who both look very uncomfortable. But neither avert their gaze. Instead they give a curt nod of confirmation.
“We did.” Luther mutters, looking at Viktor apologetically and guilty. But Viktor doesn’t look at anyone, eyes set down.
“And that was shitty.” Diego adds quietly.
“It was right.” Allison declares strongly, eyes hard, “Luther was right to leave him there.”
“Holy shit,” Lila says faintly, “You all need some good therapy.”
Diego walks up to her in disbelief, “Okay, that’s enough, Allison.”
Luther snaps his head towards Allison, appearing appalled, “No, it wasn’t! It was inhumane. You were right, Allison, we should’ve helped him-”
“Oh please. So you’re all on his side now? And look at him, silent. Bet he loves having everyone clean up his mess.” Allison taunts viciously. Viktor’s shoulder tenses and he finally glances up to look at Allison, but instead of hatred or anger, there’s great disappointment looming in his gaze, Five observes.
“You think… I enjoy what I did?” He asks shakily, “You think I love creating these messes? If you and everyone else and dad had been a better family to me, I would’ve been able to control-”
“There you go! Go ahead, villainize everyone and play the victim. It’s what you do best, right?”
“Allison…” Five grits out, “Didn’t you hear Diego? That’s enough.”
“And Five…” She drawls, looking at him with utter distaste. He makes sure to mirror her beautiful expression. “Always playing favorites with Viktor.”
“And?” He jeers, “Viktor’s mess… isn’t just his mess. He’s right, you know? Had dad been more like a fucking dad rather than some horrible scientist who loved torturing his kids, Viktor would’ve never ended the world. But sure, it’s only Viktor’s fault-”
“Okay! As much as I enjoy a good drama…” Ben stands up, clapping his hands, a smirk tugging his lips, “I believe we don’t have much time.”
Diego backs away from Allison after muttering ‘that was low’, sitting back beside Lila who wraps her arm around his shoulder to calm him. Viktor spares one look at Five to let him know he can’t stay in this room anymore and walks away from them, footsteps fading into the stairs.
Five takes deep breaths to settle down his raging wrath. “Well since Allison was so nice with Viktor, we’re gonna need some time to cool off. And if you’re so impatient, my dear sister, blame only yourself for being such a lovely company.” He says with a strong hint of scorn.
“Oh, so Viktor is more important than the world ending now?” Allison asks as Five turns his back to them. And in that moment, Five felt that Allison might rumor him into staying. So he quickly blinks away into the second floor.
Regaining his composure, he straightens his back, fixing his suit. But the turmoil inside him, the spark of anger is still there. “...Shit.”
He stands there, still for a couple minutes. Inhale and exhale. Inhale and exhale. He has to force himself to ease up because whenever he thinks of what just happened, he feels like throwing something.
Ah, fuck.
Whatever.
Now… Where’s Viktor?
Five looks around, frowning. He starts walking down the hall, towards what would've been his room had the timeline been as it was before. He’s not sure whose room is this now. And he doesn’t want to know as he doesn’t care. And then- Ben’s room, the door open. Five pokes his head to find Viktor sitting on the bed, appearing shaky and small. Smaller than he already is.
Silently, he slips into the room and closes the door behind him. Viktor doesn’t look at him, furiously wiping his tears, cheeks wet.
Five sighs but was unable to find the words. What Allison said was completely uncalled for, but the damage was done. Harlan’s dead. Words, sharp as a knife, already spit with venom.
The conflict between Allison and Viktor was one of the many things Five had not seen coming.
Five walks forward into the room and-
The drawings on Ben’s desk caught his eyes. Multiple good drawings of what appears to be the same woman. Jennifer, it read on the bottom. The…Jennifer incident? Five’s not familiar with the details, he only knew how their Ben died from Viktor’s book. But he knows his death had something to do with “The Jennifer incident.”
No matter, he dismisses the growing insignificant thought. What mattered was Viktor, who’s hands fiddled with the cassette player that once belonged to the now dead man, Harlan.
“Did you…” Viktor starts, voice hoarse and strained, “...see his-”
“No.” Five answers quickly, “I didn’t. I knew he was dead, but I assumed you two reached some sort of conclusion-”
“Well we didn’t.” He interrupts crossly.
“...Clearly.”
A moment of silence passes. Five finally decides to settle beside Viktor but his leg bounces, restless. One glance at the window was enough reminder that they have to be hasty with their plan. The world was already falling apart and usually, personal issues should be delayed.
And yet, when his eyes fell back on Viktor, Five couldn’t find it in himself to snap at him to get up. It was a dilemma, a conflict inside him. Logic and emotion, clashing. Impatience and anger at each other’s throat.
“Viktor… We have to-”
“No.”
A stubborn tone, he can deal with but Viktor’s answer wore more than just shallow determination. He didn’t walk away from them to be petty. Although there is no denying, it might play its own part. Stubbornness aside, it carried a clear tone of hurt and anguish. Anger and disbelief.
“I know what Allison said-”
“Did.” Viktor corrects, eyes narrowing at Five dangerously, “What she did was horrible.”
Debatable. Five wasn’t necessarily grieving nor bitter about Harlan’s death. One death to save the many, it was a sacrifice he was willing to take. It helped that he had no relation to him. Perhaps there could’ve been a more peaceful approach than just taking a life, sure. But when has things ever been peaceful or easy with the Hargreeves?
“I’ll be honest… I don’t think Allison’s that wrong for killing Harlan personally.”
A sharp inhale of breath and Viktor’s expression turns blank, vulnerability gone. “Of course.” He says hollowly and Five feels a small twinge of ache.
“You should’ve told us the truth-”
“So you could’ve killed Harlan yourself?” Viktor echoes grimly. Five sighs, frustrated,
“No, but if I had to-... Listen.”
“I’m done listening-”
“Well, I’m not done talking.” Five snaps, “Do you know why I wanted this jump to work so badly?” He lowers his voice in an attempt to calm down, “Because I slaughtered a boardroom full of people to buy our way back here.”
Viktor turns to him, pale and appalled. “...Oh. Shit, Five-”
“It’s done and over. Point is, it’s never easy. It’s not a math test where you memorize a few equations and walk in. Difficult decisions have to be made.”
“But she can’t just-”
“You withheld important information from us. And seeing how Allison’s been spiraling since we came here, I’m not shocked that she went for an extreme action.”
Viktor snaps his mouth shut but the sorrow was clear in his eyes. “It’s not fair.”
When is it ever?
Five shakes his head, “Unfortunately. And frankly speaking, I didn’t follow you here to discuss Harlan.”
“Oh?” Viktor tenses, “Why are you here then? Convince me to come and help save the world?”
“Partially, yes.” He admits stiffly, “But mostly because I’m angry.”
“At me?” Viktor asks defeated but Five snorts,
“I am upset with you, sure. Shouldn't have kept it from us. But no, I’m not angry at you.”
We should’ve left you in that basement.
Five felt the sudden need to grab something and smash it with pure rage. He felt violent just remembering those words.
“I’m angry at Allison.” Five looks away so he’s not sending a death glare at Viktor. “I’m angry that she had the fucking nerve to say that to you.”
“Oh.”
“You sound surprised.” He chided as lightly as he could, “After I just defended your honor down there?”
Viktor fidgets beside him, “Well… I mean, I don’t know… I just… Out of all people, I didn’t expect Allison to…” He trails off and Five understands. Allison’s anger doesn’t seem too foreign to him: he obviously can’t understand the genuine despair of losing your child, he can only imagine but he knew loss, he knew helplessness and desperation. He wasn’t the kindest to any of his siblings and he admit, when they decided to simply not do anything at first, he hadn’t took Allison’s misery to an account. Perhaps he thought and hoped she’d move on. It was Allison after all, one of the nicest out of them.
But deep inside, Five wasn’t too astonished. Disturbed and furious, yes, but her cold eyes and vicious words weren’t something new. As kids, she was spoiled and snappy. Although not necessarily cruel, she had moments where her desires overcame her morals.
So, yes, he could understand Allison’s desperate attempt to fix things, to get back what is lost. But he could only understand so far.
“Just remembering what she said makes me want to smash something.” Five admits darkly, “I’m angry for you, Viktor. She shouldn’t have said that.”
“She shouldn’t have killed Harlan.” Viktor adds glumly and Five doesn’t comment on that.
“But we can rage and grieve later.” Five continues, “Right now the world is ending. We have to stop it."
Viktor then slowly sinks into the bed, head collapsing to his hands. “God,” he breathes out shakily, “I’m so tired.”
Five purses his lips, shoulders slumping down, suddenly feeling heavy, “Yeah. I know.” I’m tired too .
The door creaks open. Five turns sharply and there’s Ben stepping into his room, looking amused with a hint of wariness.
“Done crying?” He says lazily, walking over to grab his jacket, “If so, can we go back to not dying?”
“Sure,” Five smiles tightly, “Thinking of maybe after you’re also turned to dust though.”
Ben simply returns the cold smile, “After you.”
Viktor barely lifts his head up to meet Ben’s gaze and keeps his eyes hidden behind his hands. Five drops his smile and waves his hand dismissively, “Go ahead. We’ll be down soon.”
Ben leaves after shooting an indifferent but annoyed glance. Viktor finally raises his head slowly, only to drop it on Five’s shoulder. To which Five responds by tilting his head to rest it on Viktor’s.
“...We have to go down.”
Viktor lets out a distressed moan, “I know, I know. This is all my mess and-”
Oh no. None of that.
“It’s never been only your mess.” Five says, “We all contributed. You might’ve been the main trigger but it could’ve been avoided a lot of times.”
Viktor lifts his head to look at Five who turns his head to meet his gaze, “Thank you, Five.”
His lips twitch up to a small but genuine smile, “Anytime. So… Let’s go save the world?”
Viktor sighs, “Yeah.” As they both get up, he groans, “I hate being a Hargreeves.”
“Well, technically, we’re no longer his children.” Five quips.
“Thank god.”